The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1887-06-30


Daniel Rohrer ut the g. Il. Il. En-
campmcnt at Worthington, on We'd
nesday Evening, June Is, 1887.
When man started on that weary
march through the world, that began
at the gate of Eden. and will end only
when he who is to come, will come:
standing at the portal of the gate that
opened into Paradise. and shut to the
world, lie paused, and gave one linger-
ing, longing look at the home of beau
ty and of glory behind him. and then,
with heavy heart and discouraged, he
turned his face to the unknown and
untried world before him. It was then
that the angel who guarded the gate,
taking pity on the man, plucked a flow.
er from the garden and gave it to him,
saying: The Eden that WAS you have
lost; the Eden that is to be you may
gain. That the recollections of the
one may keep alive in your heart the
hopes Of the other, take with you as
you go hence, the fairest, the purest.
and tho best of the treasures of the
homo you are leaving And it
WAS thus that the man stepped from
the garden into the world, with the
rose in his hand; with TIE woman by
Ills side; with the recollections Of the
past in his mind.
Whether this legend be the truth, or
whether it he bat the fancy of the
dreamer, there is wrapped in its words
Il lesson for us. Man cannot and man
does not live in the present only. With
out the past, with all its sorrows and
all its glOries; without the future, with
all its fears and all its hopes, the life
of the present would be but the life Of
the beast that dies. Without that
past, aud the light that it throws into
the dim and misty future, that future
would he the blackncss of darkness.
Without that future, with its beckon
ing hopes and its promised treasures,
the past would he but Il myth. and /.
song that is sung, and would long ago
have faded from the mind IF the world.
That past, and that future. hang ore
upon the other, linked together 10y the
ever moving. tl"eting present. From
the Eden that was, ~ the E'ien that is
I" M'. bright light stretches. and
along the line of that light has been
the march of man for six Thousand
gears; and that light will he his guide
until the angel. witt, one foot upo? the
land and one upon the sea. shall swear
that time shall he NJ more.
The memories Of the past and the
hopes Of the future are your life today.
They have been the life, the strength
and the story Of every man who has
walked the green earth. Ask of the
man, whenever yon find him, in any
age, under any sun, and you get the
one answer. Our fathers came from a
home beyond the rising sun; u home
fair beyond comprehension, and glorj-
Gus beyond descriptions; and we, their
children, are journeying to land Of
which Jehovah said, will give it thee.
And wherever this man, in ali tie
broad earth, has left 80 much as his
foot track, there he has left the monu-
ments that tell this story of his life;
monuments that tell of the tolls, of the
trials. of the triumpl's Of the past that
tell Of the busy struggle Of the present; !;
that tell oe the hopes, of the fears, of
the faith of the future. These monu
ments are scattered the wide world
over. They are Of every material. and
Of every form. that the busy brain of
man can select or cOnLrive. We find
them in the granite, with its founda-
tiOn firm in the earth and its summit
piercing the desert sky. We find them
in the rude pile of stones on the hill
top. We find them in the stately build
ing, in the marble shaft, in the church
spire pointing heavenward, in the busy
haunts of men. We find them in the
white stones that stand like sentinels
over myriads of grassy mounds. We
find them in the canvas that speaks;
in the marble that breathes; in the
words that never die; IN the songs that
live in the heart forever. We find
them in the months. and in the sea-
sons, and in the rites and ceremonies;
and we find them in the organizations
that the man forms, and in the days
that he keeps. All these are monu.
ments that the man builds, that the
past may die not-that the future may
fade not.
We do. then, but follow the common
bent of our nature when we gather
from the farm. from the store, from
the Office and from the home. and by
the mon ument that tells the story of
the past, and keeps alive in our hearts
the hopes 0f the future. 1t is appro-
pirate, then, that we recall the past,
the dark but glorious days that wit
messed the uprising of a great people:
that witnessed the downfall of a great
crime" It is appropriate that we turn
the light of that past into the darkness
Of the future aid see what is disclosed.
1t is six and twenty years ago that a
gun was fred on the distant Atlantic
coast. That gun WAS not trained on
brick or on stone; it was trained on
the flag that foated over Sumpter. It
is we'll that we remember this. The
hand that pulled the lanyard of thatgun
was brothers hand. 1t is well that
we remember this. Thrice thousand
years ago a brother said to his broth
ers: Ye meant it for evil, hut Jehovah
has Overruled it for good. The one who
fred that gun did better than he
meant, and all time will rpmcmbe,
this. 1t has heen rightly said, that gnn
was the signal gun that started the
march of four millions Of men fr"m the
land of bondage into the land of free
dom. It was the morning gun thai
heralded new day, and awakened the
land from its long sleep, that had
closed its eyes to the great sin that
stained its name, and cast its ours.
over every being who walked its soil
How the old flag threw its folds to tn,
breeze rs the shot, aimed at it, went
singing over, never again to be furlet
until In fact, as we'll as in name, Il
waved ct last, and for all time, over .
land and people that were free! A fire,
land and a free people; free as th'